> But what do Mouser, Digikey, or any other state side supply
> house have or do that Farnell, RS, Rapid, Maplin, et al don't
> have or do

Unfortunately I don't qualify for any sort of discounts, also
not purchasing in vast enough quantities to get the really good
price breaks, so generally I'm looking at who has what, rather
than how much (within reason). I just want to get on with
things without too much fuss, searching or cost, like anybody
else would

Some examples from recent orders - Bourns motorised pots
from Mouser (very significant price difference vs RS), ferric
chloride from RS (shipping restrictions), 8x2 LCDs from the
local Surplustronics (dirt cheap). These are what you might
say are special items. For stock items like caps and diodes,
I would tend to include those with an order for special items
so as to take advantage of the shipping being paid anyway

Luckily I have a branch of Jaycar very close to home and will
try to pop in there whenever I can to get a case, wire, blank
PCB etc. (a) they have a reasonable range (b) the staff are very
personable and chatty and (c) God help me, it almost counts as
part of my social life

Last week I made my nephew a Peter Frampton talkbox out
of parts sourced mostly from Jaycar. I'd spent half a day on the
web looking at amps, pre-amps, microphones, and compression
drivers and found I could save next to nothing. It was just quicker
to go down the road to Jaycar and get what I wanted. Done
and done. Cost was a minor inconvenience compared with the
dicking around getting parts from a variety of suppliers, each
with their own freight charges and delays

Joe
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